Greetings from Jerusalem, the City of the great King!

GREAT MINISTRY VENUES IN THE STATES

Patty asked me to write most of our personal newsletter this month because of the important progress made in my recent trip to the United States.  Though Patty and I do not like to be apart, we thought it best - both for the expenses and the nature of the itinerary - that she not be put through the grueling challenge of jet lag for a two and a half week trip.

The trip began with the annual conference of the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders, held in Dallas, Texas.  This important organization is a professional organization that networks apostolic leaders from all over the world and represents tens of thousands of churches and ministries.  I have been part of this for 15 years and serve on the board.  Though I have tried to resign due to time constraints, my resignation has never been accepted, and John Kelly continued to reach out so that I would not resign.  When the time of the annual conference was moved from December to November it did not fit my Israel responsibilities, so my attendance dropped off.  However, after returning last year, I saw that this organization is now clearer about apostolic ministry than in the past and is growing in coherence.  I was able to speak about the importance of the leaders from the nations meeting in Jerusalem as the center of the beginning of our faith.  This year I was asked, for the first time, to give a plenary presentation on the Identity of the Church.  John Kelly heard me preach this at Baruch Ha Shem the year before and thought it important that this be shared.  I did summarize this in an article in the monthly Tikkun magazine, 'Israel's Restoration'.  The response was very encouraging.  I distributed many books and had many sign up for our newsletters.  We are actually looking for ICAL to have its international meeting in Jerusalem and hopefully to be received by those in Israel who are committed to restoration of the five-fold ministries in the Body of Messiah.  I was very pleased that Jurgan Buhler, a good friend who leads the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, also spoke.  His message followed mine.  We are finally seeing an opening of hearts to the importance of Israel and her salvation.

The other important conference was the Messianic Leadership Roundtable sponsored by Jewish Voice led by our friend Jonathan Bernis.  His conference emphasized building trust, especially among leaders and leadership teams.  Steven Covey, who wrote the very good book The Speed of Trust, led several sessions.   My talk preceded his first presentation.  I was able to share on our philosophy of leadership and how we were able to build a leadership team that has been together for almost 40 years and has added other key people, some for 30, some for 25 and some for 15 years.  This continuity of leadership does not just happen.  We are mutually accountable and seek to walk in trust and integrity together.  This is outlined in my book Relational Leadership and Asher Intrater’s book Covenant Relationships.  Trust also involves a worthy vision and a program of implementation that is embraced by all.  It also involves competence in the team and for those in different roles.  The talk was very well received.  I was able to distribute 200 copies of my book Relational Leadership and 200 copies of the new edition of Jewish Roots that presents a biblical theology that fosters the restoration of the Jewish people and the Church.  The new edition is the best version by far.  Having this opportunity for influence is very important.

I was also able to schedule meetings for encouragement and strategy at two of the Tikkun America Network congregations: one at our new congregation in Denver under Stewart and Millie Lieberman, Or Chaim; the other at Rosh Pina Congregation in the Baltimore area.  Stewart and Millie are doing a very good job and we are encouraged by their work.

The trip ended with an encouraging meeting of the Tikkun America Apostolic Team at our offices in Frederick, MD, which includes 9 leaders, in addition to myself, that give oversight to our growing network of some 25 related congregations.  This also allowed some face-to-face contact time with our dear support and administration team in the office, to encourage them and let them know how much they are appreciated.

Patty and I want to thank you for your continued and unstinting support for our work.  As you know, in addition to our support and travel, funds are used for strategic giving to strengthen the budding congregational network here in Israel and for other needs among the believers.

Grace and Peace,
Dan and Patty